BC PROVINCIAL NOMINATION PROGRAM LEADS TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

July 28, 2011

Canadian immigration law allows provinces to develop their own immigration programs to best address their specific needs. Provinces can nominate a specific individual who then applies to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The Provincial Nominee, is then fast-tracked through the rest of the immigration process, which is generally faster under the Provincial Nominee Program.

The British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program was launched in 2001 in order to allow BC to best deal with their specific labour market and economic development needs. A recently released report, prepared by Grant Thornton LLP, has confirmed the success of the BC Provincial Nominee Program. The report concludes that BC has benefitted greatly in terms of investment, job growth, and ensuring that employer’s labour demands are being met.

Between 2005-2010 over 200 entrepreneurs entered BC and received Permanent Resident status, these entrepreneurs invested over $420 million into the BC economy and created over 1,000 jobs. BC has been successful in retaining entrepreneurs as 93% of those interviewed were still living in BC, and 75% had purchased homes in the province.

The BC program has also been successful in growing the provinces knowledge economy, as the province has been able to attract international graduates that have completed degrees in BC as well as specific international postgraduate students. To meet demands, in a number of specific industries, BC has created a number of programs for select semi-skilled positions in the hospitality, tourism, food-processing, or trucking sectors.

Over the same period the BC program allowed over 4,600 employers in the province to employ roughly 10,000 workers in a number of high demand fields. The skilled workers nominated by the province were employed in a number of sectors, including health care, manufacturing, and construction.

Being able to nominate, and expedite, skilled workers to BC will be extremely important as the province attempts to overcome the severe shortage of skilled workers it anticipates in the near future. In the next ten years reports estimate that 650,000 positions will be vacated by the retirement of existing workers. A successful Provincial Nominee Program will play a central role in how BC deals with their aging population.

For additional information on BC immigration please visit the following link: